My Fro & Me: Hair Stories from Women of Colour

We used Black Dolls from Diverse, Brixton, London. 'To speak, hold a doll. '

On 28th November 2017, I participated in My Fro & Me: Hair Stories from Women of Colour, a discursive exploration of Afro-textured hair, culture, and identity. The event also explored Eurocentric ideals of beauty on our stage and screens, and discrimination within the context of women and Afro-textured hair. 

Ayesha Casely-Hayford facilitated the event, held at the Cottesloe Room in The Clore Learning Centre at the National Theatre in South Bank, London.

Cottesloe Room, Clore Learning Centre, National Theatre.

The event was a sell-out; over 50 likeminded women of colour, including a sprinkling of white women and men, proved an excellent dynamic for an inspiring and thoughtprovoking discussion.

Readings from Hair Power Skin Revolution included the poems:

'I am my hair' by Fiona Mckinson
'Happy ending' by Zakia Henderson-Brown

For the full details, check out Ayesha's insight

For National Theatre publicity information

To read the Guardian article: 
Weaving tales: Barber Shop Chronicles & theatre's wave of black hair shows

Ayesha Casely-Hayford, Martina Laird and Sian Ejiwumniole Le Berre - My Fro  & Me

Ayesha Casely-Hayford's Bio:
Ayesha is an actress and employment solicitor specialising in discrimination. She is an award-winning voice artist and chair of the board of trustees of The Act For Change Project, which campaigns for greater diversity in the live and recorded arts. Ayesha also created 'Afro Archives A Performer's World', a project exploring the experience of women of colour with Afro-textured hair working in the performance industry.

Colonial Countryside: English Country Houses Reinterpreted

On 31st July, I joined the Centre for New Writing at the University of Leicester as a Literary Associate as part of a new initiative to mobilise child historians to develop new audiences for cutting-edge research about British country houses' Caribbean and East India connections.

This is a child-led history and writing project led by Dr Corinne Fowler at the University of Leicester. The three-year collaborative project entitled, 'Colonial Countryside', will encourage primary pupils aged 10 to engage with country homes with the help of historians and writers. Peepal Tree Press will publish and resource new writing, stimulating widespread interest in this neglected aspect of British history.

You can listen to an interview with Dr Corinne Fowler on Leicester Radio below:

The Centre for New Writing team is kick-starting the initiative by crowdfunding a pilot event with Colmore Junior School in Birmingham, working with Kenwood and Harewood House.

The crowdfunding will pay for 20 children to visit country houses and related archives. It will also fund a historian and a writer, plus pay for a podcast narrated by the children, who will recount their experiences.

Dr Corinne Fowler, Director of the Centre for New Writing, said, "Children make great researchers. They ask different sorts of questions to adults. This project will be led by children, who introduce parents, children, teachers, and country house visitors to a wide range of colonial connections. The aim is to encourage children to think of themselves as future leaders and historians in the field."

In the second phase, 100 primary pupils will visit 10 local country houses. They will explore the archives with an historian and work with a writer to produce pithy personal essays which will be communicated to live, print and digital audiences. Peepal Tree Press will also commission 10 high-profile writers to produce new creative work about each of the 10 participating houses. The books will be sold in the bookshops of those houses. The children will attend a conference with panels and keynotes, but where only children speak. There will be a child-only advisory board, and children will co-produce exhibitions, a massive online open course, and they will participate in the training of heritage professionals.

Power of the Pen: Identities and Social Issues in Fiction and Nonfiction

The University of Iowa's International Writing Programme is running a free (yes, free!) massive open online course (MOOC). Power of the Pen: Identities and Social Issues in Fiction and Nonfiction will focus on writing about identities, communities, and social issues in fiction and nonfiction.

This MOOC will:

• Encourage you to write both fiction and nonfiction
• Encourage you to explore the intersections between the two genres
• Encourage you to explore the intersections of individual, community, and global identities
• Encourage you to examine the effect of current social issues on individual, community, and global identities
• Foreground the principles of short and long-term fiction
• Foreground the principles of three forms of nonfiction: literary journalism, memoir essay, and personal essay
• Support your experience of creative and cultural exchange with writers around the world!

Opened: May 15, 2017 - there is still plenty of time to participate.

All I can say is that each week the course continues to blow me away, not just with the quality of the well-established and award-winning writers that share their expertise in the weekly videos but with the excellence of the whole course in the way it has been so well constructed and delivered.

I encourage you to take a look and sign up!


Onward!

NaPoWriMo 2017

Image from: NaPoWriMo2017 

NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day, totalling 30, for April.

It's been ages since I've written any poems, and I did rise to the challenge in 2013, so I'm going to give this a shot!

So on that note, I'm calling out to all you poets to join me (it can be lonely on your own). Let's get our pens to paper and write those poems.

I'll be posting (or attempting to post) my poems here, so as to keep them all in one place. Do keep in touch and drop by with a comment, or better still share your poem!

NaPoWriMo FAQ

How to get your FREE copy of Born Between the Lines

Like a bargain? You can't go wrong with this offer:

For a limited time only ...

My new autobiography, Born Between the Lines, is free from 12th - 15th January on Amazon in kindle edition. Get your FREE copy now!

The book launch will be held on 4th February. Watch this space for more information ...

Happy reading!

Coming soon...my new book 'Born Between the Lines' - An Autobiography

I know it's been a year since my last blog post, but there has been a good reason.  I have been working on my autobiography! The front cover image is above.  What do you think? I hope you all like the design.

I expect a proof copy of the book sometime this week and once approved, it will be available on Amazon, in Paperback and Kindle versions.  I will keep you posted.

Born Between the Lines is a revealing, honest, and powerful autobiography which draws upon themes that include race, cultural heritage, identity, education, freedom, and independence. I have written about those important experiences and intimate relationships that have impacted the quality of my life and have made a difference in many of the life decisions I have made.

Born Between the Lines is a story of adversity and courage, of fragmented family ties and tensions, of unearthing close guarded secrets, where I discover the bittersweet truth about my family's life.

Over the next few months, I will be sharing a range of YouTube videos about why I wrote the book, the writing/artistic process, and what I hope readers will take away from the narrative.  Born Between the Lines will be published soon and launched in January 2017.  After the launch, I will be providing readings on YouTube.

Book Excerpt

My first video

The Art of Creative Thinking - Book Review

In the introduction to The Art of Creative Thinking by Rod Judkins, he discusses how "at school, creativity was suppressed and crushed..." At art college he found the opposite.  "There was no emphasis on getting it 'right'.  All around me were people experimenting for the sheer hell of it, doing things that made  no sense - or rather doing things because they made no sense. "

The book is intended to be an overview of many useful creative-thinking techniques, and an examination of the thought processes and methods creative people use and which can be used to help everyone.

I found the many short yet insightful chapters to be a great boost, particularly when your creativity is running low or you feel the need for inspiration.  There are too many to mention - here are extracts from a few that stood out for me:

Be positive about negatives

If others respond strongly to something you've done, that's positive, even if the reaction is negative.  What should concern you more than anything is no reaction whatsoever.

Be mature enough to be childish

The future belongs to those who can reconnect with play.  It is the child in you that is creative, not the adult.  Whatever you're doing, do it as if for the first time.  To children, there is no last time.  Every time is the first time.

The book includes over 80 of these types of creative-thinking techniques, something for everyone regardless of whether or not you think you are creative.  The quotes at the end of each chapter add a quirky touch.